June 10, 2026 Parks and Recreation Commission and Urban Forestry Board

All right. I will now call to order uh this Wednesday, June 10th, 2026 meeting of the city of Mountain Views Parks and Recreation and Urban Forestry Board.

Um Allison, could you please conduct a roll call?

Commissioner Bryant

here,

Commissioner Davis

here,

Sylvester here,

Vice Chair Summer, and

here. Okay, all five are present. Uh we'll now move on to minutes approval. These are the minutes from the May 13, 2026 meeting. Um, and before we get to the commission, is there any public comment on the minutes from May 13th?

Nobody online.

All right. Um, bring it back to commissioners if anybody has a comment or would like to make a motion. I was the outlier. All good. Uh, that we accept minutes. Okay,

I'll second.

Motion by Commissioner Davis and second by Commissioner Summer.

Go ahead with the vote.

Commissioner Bryant.

Yes.

Commissioner Davis.

Commissioner Sylvester.

Yes.

Vice Chair Summer.

Yes. And

yes.

All right. Uh oral communications from the public. Uh, this portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the commission on any matter not on the agenda. Speakers are limited to three minutes and state law prohibits the commission from acting on non-aggenda items. If you're in the room and would like to speak, if you could please fill out a blue speaker card and if you're online, uh, please use the raise hand feature in Zoom and Alison will soon be

I don't think about this.

Oh, no problem.

Okay. So, are you wishing to you can turn in the card in a moment if you want to

speak in my neighbor to

go ahead.

Um, well, thank you. I'm Linda Jackekal. I'm a longtime resident at Billow condos. There used to be a turn.

This is about the appeal.

If this is if this is about the appeal that's on the agenda, this is this is not the time to

I had no idea when you said on the agenda. I didn't know if it was on the agenda or not.

Yeah. No, that if this is about the um 500 West Middlefield Heritage Street, that'll be coming up later in the 11.

Okay. So, so this part is for people that have other things that aren't

I think chance to get myself.

All right. Is there

That's what I'll say while I'm standing here. Is there anybody in the room who uh wishes would like to speak on a non-aggenda? Okay. Anybody online? All right. I will close uh public comment and we'll move on to new business. Um our first item tonight is uh item 5.1. It's a heritage tree removal application appeal uh from 961 Iller Drive. And before we start, I I want to introduce we have two city attorneys here today. Um the assistant city attorney Diana Fiselli will be representing city staff and I believe she's online. And

hi. And yes, I I wanted to also introduce assistant city attorney Franchesca Serrano who is there in person.

Hello.

Thanks Diana.

Thank you. and uh senior assistant city attorney Dave Wilggas will be representing the urban forestry board. So the process uh for this appeal uh we'll we'll start off with a staff report then the appellant will have 10 minutes and then uh the PRC uh also in a role as urban forestry board will have an opportunity for questions. Then there will be public comment. Then staff will have two more minutes. The appellant will have two more minutes. And then it'll come back to the urban forestry board for deliberation, a motion, and a vote. Uh for this appeal, I believe we have one appellant and one and it's the same as the owner and that would be Elizabeth Mcnage. So let's start. I will turn it over to uh forestry manager Russell Hansen uh to present the staff report.

Thank you, Commissioner. Sorry, I got lost my presentation. So, I'll try to get that back up for you here, but All right. Oh, got to play it. Okay. So, um again, thank you, commissioners. Um we're here this evening to talk about 961 Iber Drive. Um, as you can see from the photograph here, we're dealing with a tree that's in the front of the property, um, but is not considered a street tree in this case. Um, the particular details for this one, um, get rid of that, sorry, is H1 Circus Kogi, otherwise known as a California black oak. Um, we estimate it to have about a 20 inch diameter at standard height. Um we believe that it has overall good health at the current time and that the structure is fair. Um ultimately the applicant when they apply for removal of the tree um the statements they made for the application was the tree is in poor health, the tree is in danger of falling, the tree is diseased with pests, insects or beetles and the tree is growing in close proximity to structure and causing damage or will do so in the near future. So when we actually look at the tree in question, um the photograph on the left is representative of the trenching that was done. The property owners prior to applying with us or at least prior to us inspecting it had done some trenching um adjacent to the tree. Um uh you can see the one trench that comes from the home out towards the street gets to within about 12 to 18 inches I'm going to say from the tree. Might be a little bit more than that. um and then also makes a turn and goes over towards the driveway. And so some significant trenching. Um you can see the photo on the right is after they backfilled it um to where you can't see the trenches any longer. So if you didn't get a chance to see it while you were on site, we wanted to make sure you had these. Um when I look at the photograph on the left, um that's representative of all the roots that were cut. Um you can just barely see in that same picture kind of the top left there's one small root um that's starting to come down off of the root flare right there that there that very left hand um arrow would ultimately indicate that appears to be a clump of about three roots. It's not actually one large route, but that is three smaller roots. All I'm going to say two to three inches and then it's kind of equivalent on those other arrows. There were I'm going to say estimate 12 to 15 roots that we feel like were cut as a part of that trenching. Um again, what I would say is to the left side of the tree. Um, above and beyond that, the reason we're saying the structure is fair, the poor is ultimately because it has poor live crown ratio. Um, you can see on the photo to the right, the majority of the canopy, there's only about 40% canopy at the top and then there's 60% of the stem that has no structural branches, that has no leaves, etc. Again, that's problematic just simply because it creates some additional stresses on those branches um to where when the wind blows or otherwise that union at the bottom is going to be a little bit more pressured and ultimately the tree has a harder time I'll say compensating because without the foliage or otherwise those structural branches we're not getting as much sugar and starches. we're not getting getting that diameter to develop the way we typically would to support the branches because the sugars and starches just aren't coming from the leaves that are no longer there. And so that's the real issue we're talking about with the live crown ratio is not only does it set it up poorly, but then it doesn't recover as well either. So, um, when we looked at the tree as well, the photograph on the left, it's kind of hard to see, but just about where the skyline starts over the roof of that house in the background, there was about an 8 inch limb that was removed from that location um that ultimately pretty sure yes, that is the one that was pre-existing um from when we got there. Yes. Um, would you please check and see if the appellant is online?

Yeah. is good question. Um,

so the only two people I see online are an A+ tree arborist, which I think is from Middlefield, and then Gina, who I also think is from Middle.

Yes.

So is

so Elizabeth Mcnage, is she here as I'm her?

Did she say she's going to

We had confirmation originally, but we haven't talked to her this week.

In person,

correct? So, should we pause this one and maybe do the other?

What are you thinking about, Dave?

Well, um, this came up previously and if it was properly noticed and if Helen got noticed, you know, it's a proper meeting. How would you proceed?

Absent some indication that she didn't get proper notice. Yes.

Director Mar, do you have an opinion?

They're here.

Oh, legal advice.

I don't I don't There's no legal issue with doing the other one first to see if she comes, is there?

No legal. No.

Yeah. No. Well, I mean it's just I don't think we have to legally, but

but I think in that case you would just make a motion to hear item 5.2.

Yeah, I mean

people are okay with it. I I guess I I could flip-flop them and and give the appellent an opportunity to actually be I mean if she isn't here, we'll continue it like we would. Um is that okay with that?

Definitely. that I don't we know how to reach them and we

that's what I'm trying to do is see if I can

maybe she went to city hall

I would hope not

that was the one for next week that we did a double followup on

so that means that maybe switching that'll give us time to reach out

switch to 52% All right, let's do that. Let's let's let's flip-flop. Sorry. So,

I I think you might have to make a motion.

Yeah, I would make a motion to take it out of order. Okay. So, I'll make a motion that we flip-flop items 5.2 and 5.1 to give um the appellant in 5.1 a little bit more opportunity.

Excuse me, comment. Are the people from 500 middlefield all here?

There's two of us here physically

and there's two online

and the other two

is the eval. Is not here either.

No online.

Gina is the appellent and she confirmed that she was online. So for Evan, I believe you're here on behalf of the applicant for 500 Middlefield.

Uh yeah, that's correct. She just asked me to be present to try to clarify any uh any questions or concerns you guys might have about the application.

All right.

Yeah, I'll go through I'll go through

is he the only one that's representing them or is she planning I'll I'll let's let's bring it back.

So, did you make a motion?

Yeah, I'm going to make a motion that we flip-flop 5.2 and 5.1.

So, I guess the clarifying thing is is this gentleman the only person that's planning on speaking on behalf of the applicant for 500 middle field. Maybe the applicant would know that and we can ask the applicant because it's not supposed

Well, it's the appellent and the appellent is on. So, so that's

no Gina has raised hand.

Yeah, I mean is on

Yes, this is the appellent.

That's the

And Gina, are you prepared if we take this item now?

Sure.

Yes. Me and my husband are prepared.

Yep.

Okay, great. Thank you.

All right, so let's I made a motion.

Okay, I'll second. Okay,

we can just take a we just take a verbal vote.

Uh, yeah. So, Commissioner Bryant, Commissioner Davis, Commissioner Sylvester.

Oh, sorry. Vice Chair Summer.

Yes.

And Chair Mitch.

Yes. Okay. So, switching again and I so I want to start this and and go through all the formalities since this is a different appeal. Uh, I want we are taking 5.2 two um a heritage tree appeal 500 West Middlefield Road. Um again, I will introduce the attorneys. We have assistant city attorney Diana Fiselli representing city staff. And I didn't jot down the name, so Diana, if you could reintroduce.

Sure.

Assist. Okay, go ahead.

Assistant city attorney Francesca Srano. And are you also representing city staff?

Yes.

I'm just writing this down for the next one. Okay. And then um senior assistant attorney Dave Wilggas will be representing the urban forestry board. Uh this uh the process on this one uh we will have a staff report. Uh the appellant will then have 10 minutes. Uh the PRC urban forestry board will ask questions. uh will then take public comment. Then staff will have an additional two minutes. The appellent will have two minutes and then the urban forestry board uh will deliberate, take a motion and vote. For the purpose of this, I just want to um clarify all the players on this. Um the appellant are is Gina and Dave Wyn. Um, so they are the ones that that actually have status in this uh on this this item. However, uh if there are if they would like to seed some of their time to the HOA board or to the uh owner um uh they're they're welcome to do that, but it would flow through the appelllet on this. Okay. And with that, uh, Russell Hansen will kick off with the staff report.

Thank you, Commissioner. All right, share. Okay. So, we are here this evening uh to talk about 500 Middlefield Road, Heritage Tree Appeal, which is ultimately an HOA complex. Um you can see in the photograph here, the redwood tree in question that we're talking about this evening is internal to the complex. So it is considered a private tree. Uh the tree itself is a sequoia sevy, a coast redwood that has approximately a 30-inch diameter. We considered it to be in good health with fair structure. Um the applicant themselves listed that the tree does not have proper growth space as well as the tree is growing in gross close proximity to structures and causing damage or will in the near future. So we're talking about basically grow space and damage. Um little bit more closeup. Um what we did is we took a patio or shot from the patio and that photo to the left looking back at the tree. the tree is actually outside in the common area of the HOA. Um that this is a private patio for the property owners themselves. Um so you can see the tree on the left with condition of the fence. You go to the right that is actually taken from the outside that you can see um there is still some few inches maybe of clearance as it goes up the stem of the trunk. Um but that ultimately um you can kind of see that bend at the base where the root flare has started to kind of displace that fence a little bit. Um when we go back to the inside, you can see on the photograph to the left that we're talking about damage in that kind of far corner um of the patio. It is paper bricks or otherwise. Um, and then that photograph on the right, you can get a little bit better closeup of it that you can see that there's approximately a one inch lift on that patio. If I were to estimate distance of lift, we're probably talking about 24 in or so of patio that has started to lift. And so ultimately, um, go back to that. Our belief was um that based off of the damage that we're seeing here, the fence still could be cut or slightly modified to accommodate that root flare at the base without creating any major security or access issues um kind of a thing for the property owner. And then as well when it came to the pavers ultimately we decided that because in fact they are pavers um that it would be fairly simple to be able to remove the pavers examine whatever roots are there likely be able to cut them. Our guess is that this is likely one root that is causing the damage and it is almost completely adjacent to the tree itself where we saw that root flare coming down. And so ultimately um again our feeling is it was just one route um that is likely to need to be cut at this point. Um but again we would hope to be able to remove the papers make a better judgment call on that in the future. So our final findings were that we did not find that the condition of the tree itself required its removal at this time. We did not find that removal of the heritage tree was necessary in in order to construct improvements. um we did not feel that the tree or the structure of the canopy was in such condition um that it needed to be removed. We felt it could it was good and could be managed with proper care and then ultimately we did not find that the tree should be removed due to good forestry practices because there was not any kind of significant density or otherwise that this was creating any other conflict or otherwise. That's all I have for Thank you. All right, we'll now move on to the um Helen and that would be Gina and Dave Gwyn. Again, you have 10 minutes. If you want to allocate some of that time to others, uh you're free. And if I'll let you go ahead and if you could just clarify whether you are the owner of 149 or whether you're a a um renter. I'm not sure what those statuses on on this um complex. So, I'll turn it over to you guys. their owners.

Hi. Uh yeah, so uh thank you for giving us this time. You know, part of it we would like to allocate um to A1, you know, for the the tree service, you know, just for the arborist to give his kind of overview, but um we are the homeowners. Um my wife actually owned it before we met. Um, she's lived at the complex or owned the the the condo for about 14 years. And we don't have we're not someone, you know, we're not a couple that doesn't like trees. We like the tree, the redwood tree next to that um that is very much separated from the fence. The biggest issue for us is that it's, you know, a risk to our safety. It's a risk to the safety of of other residents in the within the community and also the damage that it's doing to our property. So, what what started this was the uh there was a bunch of debris underneath the aggregate uh patio that was originally there. And when we removed a lot of that debris, we found that it had completely lifted about a 4x6 foot section and cracked the aggregate and lifted it up. So that's what started this whole project of redoing our whole patio. So, the HOA agreed to cover that cost and they suggested that we put in a paper brick patio so if in the event something happened, we could trim the the root system down. Um, when they did all of that stuff in preparation for the new pavers, we also paid to have a whole brand new fence put in. The new fence cost us just under $8,000 um with the lattice work and everything like that. And that was only a few years ago. And as you can see the damage from the root base uh the base of the tree, it's already putting pre additional pressure and it's bowing that whole um uh 10-ft section of fencing. There was a cutout that was done at the bottom to compensate for any type of future growth. And when they were doing the cutting prior to installing the pavers, I tried to get them to cut deeper. Um, because it, you know, I already knew that it this was going to happen in like a year, year and a half or something like that that it was going to start lifting things back up and they didn't feel comfortable doing anything more just cuz they felt that it would destabilize the tree and it would affect the anchoring of the root system. Now, I know the staff has suggested that there could be, you know, they could offset that by, you know, if we did do some more pruning on the the root system on the the patio side that we could do more watering on the HOA side to get more growth and help with um balancing the stability. But there isn't any sprinkler system right there on that side. plus on the HOA side. Plus, it is on a like hill side that goes right down into the um into the uh common uh driveway area. So, there's no way to really balance that side of it. So the only option then is to every like 2 to 3 years lifting up the you know the pavers trimming the roots as much as can be done and then we're going to have to replace the that section of fence probably I'd say maybe every five years at you know more like it you you know it because right now it's already bowing a bunch

well and I included photos in um the letter Yeah. And my wife included photos

how worse it got just in a matter of a few months.

In a matter of a few months, I mean, you can see that it's completely arked and bowed and um I mean, it's just going to keep getting worse and worse and and it the the thing is is is it's butdding up against the fence. It's only within 10 ft of of our windows, but within less than 10 feet of the roof line um and the gutter side. So, it's probably about 8 ft from that. And it's just it's it just it scares us having it that close, the damage that it's con uh continually doing. And we have no problem putting in a tree to replace that tree, just a little bit farther away from the fence and with a tree that won't grow as large of uh trunk or as wide of trunk. Um, and uh, and also in the CC and ours too, I forgot to mention earlier, the HOA doesn't allow for any type of modifications to the fencing system. So, we need to keep the fence the same. So, the only other option would be to keep making cutouts and to actually take away part of our property line and move the fence in,

which we can't do,

which we can't do. So um and the other thing too is like you know based off this evaluation there was no um looking from the staff from the city of the actual root system and how and and how that looks underneath the pavers. So we feel that this was just you know a quick um you know visual scan and looking at you know the elevation and lift in the the pavers but not actually you know seeing what's underneath the hood. So um that's kind of like where we stand. Um and I'd like to give the rest of the time um to the arborist to give his input um from his evaluations.

Thank you. Just to let you know in case you can't see the clock, we have 4 minutes and 15 seconds left.

All right. Well, if it's okay, I'll I'll jump in. Um, can everybody hear me? Okay.

Yes.

So, my name's Evan Fuller. I'm an arborist with A+ Tree Service. We've been working with the HOA for a number of years. So, when this project came up, uh, they reached out and contacted us because we're familiar with the permitting process. And uh so as part of the quote that they requested for potentially removing the tree um we were also contracted to write the arborist report and and uh facilitate the application for the removal. So my main concern with the tree in this case is really just the root pruning. Um I wasn't aware of the issue with the the HOA requirements and the fencing and all that. Our bora culturally I would normally recommend just making a larger cutout in the fence to accommodate the trunk growth. Um, but when it comes to the patio, I mean, short of pruning the roots, um, you you'd kind of just have to have the, uh, the owner sacrifice some element of their patio space, either by building like a a raised porch there or something instead of pavers or to just let the tree continue to lift the pavers. Um, I personally am not comfortable cutting roots that close. If that's the determination that the city makes, um, then I'll I'll work with the HOA and the resident to, you know, kind of advise on the best way to do that. But from a liability standpoint, my company would not be comfortable cutting a a route that close to the base of the tree. We'd essentially be cutting into the root flare of the tree if we were to cut it all the way back to the fence line. Um, and my concern there would be just compromising the tree stability. Redwood trees are very good typically at compartmentalizing decay. So I'm not necessarily concerned about uh you know making an underground wound that would become infected and start to decay the the base of the tree or anything like that. It would really just be the mechanical uh weakening of the root system on that side could potentially lead to the tree at some point toppling over. Um and there's not really any way to understand that for sure without excavating the patio. um and really exposing the main root system on the patio side. And even in that case, we'd still be either shaving down a root or severing a root completely uh to facilitate the patio repairs. So that was kind of the my concern arborulturally with the tree. And that's why I would recommend removal in this case. I understand the city's uh you know hesitancy to lose such a large tree like that. Uh but I I feel that the alternative is asking the the property owner to make some kind of sacrifice with their property which which may be the the city's position. Um but that would be my input from an arborist standpoint

and I'm happy to take questions as well. But

yeah, we'll have an opportunity. Is there anybody else? Uh appellent, do you you got another minute? Do you want to use your time or are you done?

No, no, I think we're we're good. I appreciate though the offer.

Okay. And you'll have you'll have you'll have two minutes more later on. All right. Uh I'll now bring it back to the uh PRC Urban Forestry Board to see if we have any questions of anybody.

I have a question um for staff. Have we uh requested a review of their HOA CCNRs or anything like that?

Good question. And I'm not 100% certain that they shared that information. Um but I think they may have shared that with us. Um and it I'll just say was general language that says, you know, modification offense isn't allowed or otherwise. I don't I don't know as though we read anything that ultimately weren't changed our thought process.

It wasn't your job to

right

but I was just wondering if there was some exception language because very often there is.

Yeah.

So to your knowledge did they take this matter to their board of their HOA?

Um I believe they had to take it to the HOA because it's an HOA tree and that the HOA kind of encouraged them. I think that was their statement as well is that the HOA encouraged them to submit the application or otherwise based on the prior repair,

but it's not technically on their property. It's on the common area.

Correct.

And so is the fence their property line to your knowledge?

Again, to my knowledge, I would say yes, but I do not know that.

All right. Thank you. Just following up on that, a U HOA CCR would not trump a city ordinance.

No.

Yes. No. Questions.

My questions would be about the fence as well. Um, the appellent mentioned not being able to move the fence because of the HOA, but I also thought I heard them say something about not being able to cut more of the fence. Maybe I misunderstood. I'm just trying to understand what to be done with the fence.

Question, but still there.

Go ahead. So, so to so to address that, uh we're not allowed to make any type of visual uh modifications that you can see from the outside. So, um where where the fence is, we made that a little cutout, which you can see in the image that that uh Russell Hansen shared. At the very base, we had some cutouts which we weren't happy with, but we, you know, we had to do what we had to do to to make it straight uh when we had the new fence put in. But, um, but that you can't see from the from the outside. Um, but anything that was higher where it's boeing, that we wouldn't be able to cut from our understanding. Um, based off of the CCNRs. Um, so I just a question I'll start with Russell again. I just if if root pruning were to happen in the patio area um given sort of what you can see in terms of how much things have have been raised um would we be looking at I mean you again I think I think you said maybe it might be one route I mean you wouldn't know for sure I mean you know would you actually have to cut a major route would I mean is it likely that this tree has lots of roots um So, one route wouldn't um be as significant. Um, and would you actually have to cut it or would you have to maybe shave it down a little? I guess it depends on how close it is to the the surface of the if you could extrapolate on that a little bit. Expand what you can out of my question.

Yeah. No, absolutely. And so trees are always I'll say difficult because where we would like to have uniformity, we don't always get that. So I can't really say with any certainty how evenly spaced any of the roots are around the tree, but they do serve as structural support etc to fight against winds etc. And so typically they're going to try and find a balance point where they are spreading their root system evenly. Um having said that I typically operate on a general rule of about three feet from the trunk, ideally five feet from the trunk. you're going to get outside of the majority of the bigger structural roots. Once you get past about five feet, they start to taper down enough into those other feeder other structural roots and feeder roots that are out much further, I'll say. And so this one, the tree itself is about two to three feet. So I feel like there's a chance we're going to hit some of the larger structural roots. What that feeds to, I can't really say. I would just simply add that because this patio I think they'd mentioned that this was concrete before and they changed it to the p the pavers. Um that might even be contrary, not necessarily their fault. Um but by ultimately allowing that additional water and everything else to filter through those pavers, now the roots are going to expand into that area. They're going to grow a little bit bigger because they have the water they have that they that they need. And so it's kind of a double-edged sword that they did those favors. Um, but it was the right thing ultimately in terms of saving these trees longer term in terms of cutting of the roots or otherwise. Again, it is so subjective that I can't really give you good advice as to how big of a root and how much of an impact it's going to have. Um, but I feel like it's going to have maybe 20% of the root system if I were to pick a larger number. um and just say that that is one large structural root that comes out and feeds a bunch maybe a 20% of the root system is kind of being impacted because there should be a fair amount of it on that other side where we have landscape and turf and everything else. Um and so I think that's kind of what we're looking at in terms of cutting them. Just like a tree branch typically you want to make a clean as round a cut as possible. So you want to make it perpendicular to the root or otherwise. And you want to cut that root entirely only because the tree's natural response is to form wound wood to kind of seal that off and prevent additional decay or otherwise from occurring significantly. Um and so by doing it that way, you reduce the amount of decay or otherwise that can impact the tree long term. You absolutely can shave a root down. You do not have to cut that entire root. the problem becomes the bigger the wound, the slower it closes, the more potential that has to have a long-term impact on trees don't heal, but they seal, they close. It's going to have an impact on how well that closes and how well it's able to defend against disease or other pathogens longer term. So, that's why we typically don't recommend shaving, but we absolutely do it on occasion. I I don't want to imply that don't do it because there are some instances we get into a 12 or 18 inch fruit and we're really trying to save that tree. We will shave that down because we want to save the tree kind of a thing. So it can be done it's just not best practice. Okay. Um then my my other question I guess would be for the um appellent. Um and that is it it goes a step further on the uh you know since this tree is actually outside of property line. Um if there were fence work well first of all you did some fence work. Um both on that fence work and on any future fence work. Is that a a um an owner expense or is that an HOA expense? And if the tree were to be removed, would that be or any work done on the root system of the tree, would would that be an owner expense or an HOA expense?

Yeah, I can Yeah, I can address that. So, the fence is uh the homeowner's expense. Um, like I said earlier, the patio and the fence are all brand new. Um, as of like two and a half, three years ago. Um, the pruning of the root system and the removal of the tree would be on the HOA. Um, and oh, half. Sorry. So, my wife said it would be half. we were willing to split the cost to help the HOA. But the other thing too that I wanted to address is uh the the thickness of the root system. Um, I do know when they did when they put the pavers in and it was fully excavated, the base of the route, it was probably that encroaches on our property is probably about 2 to 3 feet in and it's a very thick piece of wood that is probably I' I'd say maybe like 24 in wide and it goes in a couple feet. And they had to like shave it down and shave it down and they got as they did as much as they felt comfortable doing. But there's only a very thin level of sand, probably a half an inch at the most in between that big heavy piece of wood on our property and those pavers. So it's not like it's lifting like, you know, a bunch of soil and stuff like that. I mean, it's a very small margin in between the wood and the pavers. Thank you.

Do one more.

So again another hypothetical um a route like a a major route how much does that grow in in the course of five years or 10 years? I mean, you know, I mean, I don't know. Understood. Ultimately, where I go with that is it's going to be very similar to what we see in the branches of the canopy. And it's just there's a lot of factors that are going to change. Um, but typically, you're going to see about a half an inch to an inch in a really aggressive year where it's growing really strong. You might see about an inch of growth overall um diameter. So a half inch on either side real aggressive little bit less aggressive maybe a quarter inch or so that's typical can exceed an inch it can be less than that I just it depends on a lot of factors thank you commissioner

I have a question for um assistant city attorney Wilus so I'm looking at the city's ordinance in the criteria for removal number two talking about the necessity of the removal of the heritage tree in order to construct improvements or allow reasonable and conforming use of property. So obviously there's no improvements being proposed for construction. So I wanted to ask you about this idea of um allowing reasonable and conforming use of the property and this would be specifically the the appellants property the condominium. So, um, if they were to, let's say, relocate relocate the fence in order to accommodate the tree, that would presumably be putting some of their property on the outside of the fence. How do you see that whole reasonable and conforming in relation to this sort of idea? Is that making that I mean because they no longer have use of that part of their

Yeah. Generally reasonable and conforming there's two

concept here. A conforming use is just the property conforms to things like zoning laws. Okay.

Reasonable use is a little more subjective as far as you know does is the use of the property uh does it fit within the characteristics of the neighborhood. So I'm not I'm not sure how it really applies here.

Okay. Um

because the patio is pretty small that would make it smaller. Is that unreasonable to ask of them

from the point of view that I know that reasonable for me is sort of a legal term and I want that

right and I I think we're on we all agree it's a conforming use. I think it's reasonable use of the property which is does it conform with the general characteristics of the neighborhood or the area where they live.

Um

so

so it seems it seems like unreasonable

it seems like it's a and it's more of an an HOA versus resident Yeah issue.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you. That gives me some perspective.

Go ahead. Just um what was there any indication of um impact on the structure itself? I understand the fence and the the papers the patio but anything related to the structure in terms of the house structure.

Yes.

Not that I am aware of. No.

Um here's another legal question Dave. um like the Supreme Court, but how does precedence play into the decisions of this commission because we've had many uh cases before us that are very similar to this in terms of offense and uh pavement.

Well, um I mean I I don't think you're bound by any particular precedence. number one because they're I I mean they're each case is so different even though they're similar cases, right? Each case turns on its own individual facts and so it's it's hard for me to say, well, you have precedents for this because every case is just so different. Okay. I presume consistency of judgment would be a desirable commission.

It's a little better. Yeah. Concept, but again, you know, everything turns on the individual facts and circumstances of each individual case. Any other questions on this side?

Anyone over here? All right. Um, we will now open up public comment. This is your time if you if you'd like. Um,

should I stand?

Yes, please. But did you want to speak on Middlefield or Ikeler? Because you were here for Iller original. Okay.

And there's two neighbors here, too. But I can't speak.

First of all, thank you. Um, I I heard some suggestions here that made me think about how we really need to view this. I think you may be thinking it's a tree and another tree on a flat piece of land, but if it's a slope like this that's this high. So, some of the tree branches go beyond this into the fence. The rest of it cascades down into a dirt pile before the cement base. So, the two trees are very close together. My question to you would be they've probably got their root system somewhat intertwined like the two trees are supporting each other. Is that a reasonable assumption?

That is reasonable. Yes.

Yeah. So, and from what you said that the cobblestone was put in and that allowed more water get to the roots. Correct.

I'm not supposed to answer any questions. Yeah. You're you're allowed to speak, but technically I'm not allowed. I'm saying that I heard what you said and that's what I thought you meant. So it sounds like we could make it worse by standing out there and watering it and giving these trees more water than maybe they need and hence increasing their growth and impinging on the patio. It's just a thought. But anyway, I don't want to be at odds with my two neighbors because I just adore these people. They are my friends. But I've lived there for since the 1970s and we've had trees trees growing. It's called Willow Park. It's all about trees. Um, and we got an award years ago for some of the best landscaping in the city back when it was first there as condors. Um, I'm sort of a tree hugger. I hate to see any trees taken down unnecessarily. These trees I see from my patio and they are majestic. They're huge, beautiful, green, healthy trees side by side like twins. It's not like a tree here, a tree there. They're like a set. And then Ren Hampton is this unit that our my lovely neighbors have and the young man that moved over here. Two trees are like right where the divide between the two patios are. So the trees affect both of those units. Although the other gentleman hasn't I to my knowledge had any verbalized complaint. I like the suggestion you made about working on the fence. The board of directors which I was on for 10 years and five years as president not in the very current day but seemed like forever. Um, we've had a lot of discussions about trees and a lot of it weighed heavily on how can we preserve our wonderful tree surround area and saying we're like living in a little big basin. It's really beautiful in there when you walk around and I don't think that you can really even think clearly about what to do with this situation without standing there looking at the situation first, you know, right with you there. And um

that's sorry time is time is up. So

okay

so thank you very much.

Um

I have um a relatively short um comment. I want this

if you would be comfortable

because that's where the microphones cameras

um first. Thank you for the opportunity and uh the I want this tree to stay. So that's the basis for my coming tonight. Um from all the things that have been said, I'm thinking we could delay this. We could delay the decision um for I don't know three, four years, five years. That's one suggestion. The other suggestion is and I don't know whether this is technically possible but with um one of your um members here sort of indicated it the idea of changing the border of the um of the cond of each condominium is it's self-contained and uh outside that perimeter is the common area. So this tree is sort of encroaching on a private area. Presumably there is the possibility that uh the patio becomes smaller and the whole the condo unit has a smaller footprint and the um common area expands. I don't know how that's legal or possible and everybody would have to be in agreement, but that's all I can think of because I love this tree. Um, and uh there's been a lot of uh want and removal of trees on our on our property and uh this would be pretty bad I think to take down. So that being a spoiling a spoiling sorry I'm not very energetic at this time of night but

thank you very thank you very much for coming and sharing.

Is there anybody else in the room who would like to speak at your convenience afterwards if you could fill out blue a blue card.

My name is Sher Dubarl and I live there also. Um, I'm trying to be as objective as possible because I understand that a homeowner does not want to lose any space because our our condominiums are small, especially these units are onebedroom and so people do utilize the outdoor space. And I love redwood trees also, although I think this one does look a little sparse. I think a lot of the redwood trees on our property look like they are um needing more water and this does not get that much water because there's pavement and then there's the patio next door. So um I understand why the tree is going to the area where there's more water which would be the patio. I do have some suggestions though. I would be very leerary about removing the entire route because the tree is very tall and right across the driveway there's a whole group of other apartments and it would be and with that removal of that root I think it would damage the integrity of the tree. However, if the tree maintains that root, I think that possibly rather than using pa pavers, you could use decomposed granite or gravel, something like that. Yes, it would be permeable to water. So then that root would continue to grow. But I would be very cautious of removing that major route right there with the other buildings of apartments right of condominiums right across the street. But it's a lovely tree and I love redwoods and um so I um it's a difficult decision. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else in the room who would like to speak? Um, also, do we have anybody online who would like to speak?

No.

All right, I will close the uh public comment portion and uh bring it back to uh staff for two more minutes if you'd like.

Sure. I again, I don't think I really have anything significant to add. I just our feeling is is that we're more than happy to continue the engagement with the property over owner have conversations between them and the acrea their arborist and kind of come to a resolution to this in the future when they start to make these repairs when they start to make some adjustments or otherwise. Ultimately, if the damage is significant and the new dumps does come out, we do have that ability to revisit this permit and make a different decision at a later time or they can reapply at a later time and we can ultimately make a separate decision at that point. That's kind of where staff is going. Again, I just think there's more time that could be done with this tree to have more conversations if nothing else.

Thank you. Um, Gina and Dave, you have two more minutes and you can take it or allocate it, whatever you like.

Should be able to

I think they you should be able to unmute if

Can you un Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. There we go. Um,

start. Yeah. So, something that, you know, I guess just to address, you know, the last comment that was said, um, we did actually submit um a request to remove the the tree based off of the lifting of the the previous um aggregate uh patio. And that was about two and a half, three years ago, some probably three years ago. Um, and then we did this whole project, you know, with the with the pavers and the fence. Um, and now we're revisiting it again. And, and this is because it's getting to a more, you know, substantial, you know, point in damage. But really, it's something that, you know, should probably be addressed every year, year and a half, you know, something like that based off of how quickly the roots growing and also the fact that there's a small gap between the big piece of the root on our side. um and you know, next to the pavers. The the thing that I wanted to say too is that um in the bylaws, it doesn't allow us to um um for the homeowners association, it doesn't allow us to adjust the size of the patio. Um so there's we're not going to be able to shrink the patio or expand it and encroach onto the HOA's property. Um, as everyone knows here, I mean, real estate's very expensive in the Bay Area. So, obviously, like, why would we want to just move our patio in another foot just for this tree? Um, and then shrink our patio. And we're not going to do like a gravel patio or anything like that. Um, and you know, something I just want to leave everyone with, it's we're not against having a tree. We want to replace it with another tree. And one of the things that makes the the whole development and you know and why my my wife fell in love with the area is such is the variety of the trees that are in the complex. We have Japanese maple, we have um you know birch trees, we have a bunch of different trees. So

thank you.

Okay. Um

sir, may I ask you one question?

Probably not. Actually, no, you can't. I'm sorry we the public comments closed. I don't mean to be rude, but we have to legally stick to what we do. Sorry.

Um, so we'll now come back to the uh to the urban forestry board and uh discussion if anybody wants to uh start.

Sure, I can start. Um so so your complex just beautiful. I went for a brief walk because I was there like a year or two ago. So I actually found my way not to without too much difficulty so I could enjoy the bird song and think how love how lucky you are to live there. It's a beautiful place. Um, so there's and it's beautiful because of the trees and the thought of cutting through the roots of a heritage redwood so as to preserve papers in a patio. It it's those are two completely different things. A few papers are one thing and the root of a majestic tree is a completely different universe. uh the the compound complex is is designed the way it is and the trees are there and I think one needs to make the judgment of what what uh what is the relative value of of the various uh things we're looking at. It's always very painful when a when a rent when a heritage tree is destroying the foundations of a house and we have to say ah it's a wonderful tree but the house is a house. A patio is something completely different and sometimes you have a roof and you can't put papers onto it. So you have a patio with the root in it with a different kind of surface. Uh so the the the recommendation to shave a road or to cut a road so we can preserve papers is uh is something that I would object to that I really do not like. Uh the fence walking around the complex I thought oh my this is so beautiful. Look at the trees. Look at the plants in front of the houses. taking out a tree would make a serious difference to the look of the area, but making a cut in the fence, I don't know. I personally would not notice. Maybe other people would, but it seems to me like a a conversation to be had with the HOA and the directors of the HOA. Besides that, reading through staff's analysis, the one thing I disagreed with was cutting the roots at all. But otherwise it seems to me that this does not rise to the requirements for taking out the heritage tree. So for me this was not a difficult decision to me. I agree staff's recommendation to to deny the name who wants to go. Would you like to

Sure. I'd be happy to go next.

Um I I find myself uh in full agreement with Commissioner Bryant. Um yeah, I what a lovely neighborhood. You all are so lucky to be there. Um just almost an oasis. I would have never thought that it was so beautiful in there. Um I'm having trouble finding the justification in the city's ordinance to remove this tree. Um I I feel like the the treaty which is in the common area and the responsibility of the homeowners association to manage um some compromise needs to be made at at that level. Um in terms of you know shaving a notch out of the fence um changing the shape of the patio those are all completely possibilities. um that are would not really have any visibility from the the public area of the public portion of the common energy hidden behind a giant redwood roof flare. Um and I feel like the true exploration of the details of what needs to be done just has not happened at that level. And if it were to happen and still not be able to arrive at a solution, then I think that is time to come back to staff with a another application and and there could be a case made that there's damage that we not be able to but I think at at this point that there are still many options that would not violate the CCNRs and they need that needs to be played out before we remove this tree.

Thank you. I go ahead.

I agree with everything you said. I think the real conversation needs to happen with the the homeowners association. Um it's their treat. I mean, if anything, you should sue the homeowners association, have them build you a new fence. That's a non-legal opinion. But I sympathize with the applicant. I too have a, you know, a fence that's getting leaned over by a redwood tree. It's not on my property. Um, and it is um it's challenging. It's frustrating. It's difficult. Um, but the ordinance been around for half a century. Uh it's pretty clear in its intent and and purpose and um you know to be consistent with the many other judgments that we have made and situations where it is impacting a fence or a pavement area. Um I agree with the commissioners that have spoken so far that I think we weigh in favor of the tree on this. Um, not that that's a necessarily easy thing to mitigate and I hope your association uh board will assist you in coming up with a solution. So, um, long story short, I will uh agree with the staff position.

Um, I definitely have much empathy for the homeowner here. Um, it is a small space. Um, and I hate to see it impinged upon. I also understand that the the owner is is really can't really do much with the fence even if they they wish to. So, um, I go back to the I was actually thinking that some of the HOA representatives would have been here to talk about it too because it does feel like some of this decision and who should be appealing for uh, applying to remove the street would be the HOA. So, I'm a little confused about who who was in the room here. Um, I do want to point out though, um, of all the tree fields I've been in, I've never I don't remember ever having so many neighbors come and talk about a tree and the love of the tree, and it is a reminder why we have a heritage tree ordinance in the first place. It is the love of trees. It is the fact that trees become common goods. Uh, not just in an OA in an HOA, but among any of the people who can actually see that tree and experience it. Um, I do also want to applaud the neighbors for being so kind and saying how much they care about the relationship with with the appellant. Um, I got to meet one of the neighbors walking around trying to find the tree and there there is a certain kindness in your in your community that is that is unique and wonderful. So, I want to applaud you for all being so kind about that and sharing your thoughts. Um, I do have a lot of concerns about what's going to happen to this tree if the root the if it is one major root and if it's pruned or cut. I don't know what happens to the stability of the tree in the long run. Um, and I suspect that that would be something that the HOA might want to come back and discuss at some point, especially if it turns out that there's a more extensive root system or it is infeasible to actually proning the stock recommendation, but with all of those caveats.

Thank you. Um, so yeah, turning to myself, you know, again, it's a it's a mature redwood tree. Um, it looks like it's in pretty good health. It's lush. It's fairly well balanced. It has a nice canopy. Um actually think it's nicer than the one that's next to it. Um although they're both nice, but they seem to be playing well um together in terms of sharing sharing space. Um so redwoods u fall in a special mountain view protective category of only needing 12 inches of circumference to be deemed heritage. So, we have I think there's three uh species of trees that fall into that category. And this one has a 95 inch circumference. And uh the city code specifies that a single removal criterion is just a minimum and that additional criteria shall be considered with the emphasis on preserving heritage trees. Um so that's sort of a little bit our mission our mission statement. Um so you know after reading the materials and spending time at the site you know the only criterion for removal that I find partially satisfies number one again proximity to structures.

I did climb around a bit um to examine the you know it was a little treacherous on the hillside. Um but I I wanted to sort of see how close the tree was at at different parts of the tree to the fence. um you know the upper part of the fence it looked like it was about 10 inches away. Um I was also able to take a brief peek at the patio. Hopefully that's okay to sort of glance over the fence a little bit with regard to that because that is a frustration some we can't get into certain certain parts of yards. We have to rely on photos. Um but with regard to the patio the paper uplifting I saw was was fairly you know I'm going to call it minimal. we we see a lot of these. Um, and in in the context of of that, um, I didn't think the the lifting was was too substantial and it was consistent with what the picture showed. Um, with regard to the fence at this point, and I I fully acknowledge the owner has already made some uh repairs and put in a new fence, but uh the damage to the fence is mostly a future possibility um rather than a significant current condition. So, you know, to me, if and when the tree begins to push up against it or impact the structure of the fence, modification of the fence seems possible. And I would hope that for a minimal modification that might buy 10 to 15 years or more of a mature redwood that the HOA would be amendable to those modifications and would work um to try to preserve the the tree. I you know I where I live in Mountain View there isn't an HOA but in in another location where I'm at people are trying to get me on the HOA and uh which I've resisted to to this point but but HOA rules I think they could be you know things could be modified a little bit. So, I would hope that um the HOA would be open to uh working with people to uh to try to try to preserve this tree as best they can. So, anyway, um because the removal criteria for me aren't sufficiently satisfied and because mitigation options exist, I'm also going to lean towards denying the appeal and upholding the staff decision to deny removal of this um regulatory. Chair Mitchner, I think I detect consensus, so may I make a motion? Yes. I make a motion that we adopt a resolution of the urban forestry board of the city of Mountain View to deny the appeal and uphold the staff decision to deny the removal of her Heritage Tree at 500 West Middlefield. Title further reading.

Second.

Uh we have a motion by Commissioner Davis, second by Commissioner Bryant. Is there any discussion before we vote?

Commissioner Bryant,

yes.

Commissioner Davis,

yes.

Commissioner Sylvester,

yes.

Vice Chair Summer,

yes.

And Chair Mitch,

yes.

Okay. Thank you for everyone who um participated and spoke on on that tree. And we will now I have an update. Okay. So, I talked with property owner. Um, I managed to get our troop proceed with the one for we can I think it would be my recommendation under the circumstances uh you may want to consider uh continuing this to give the appellant due process to present the claim. Um, you could also since it was properly noticed, you could also proceed, but my recommendation would be to continue it to give her new office.

I think I would be more comfortable with a recommendation to continue it.

Okay. You okay with that? continue so I can go home and watch basketball.

Yeah, good with that. I get I I hope that

you know there's construction going on on that site and I I hope that um

that we don't um mandate it, but I would prefer that there not be further modifications to the tree in the interim period um between today and when we uh

that's a serious issue.

Yeah. And part of what's come up, part of what I was willing to object to, what I receive, I think I think the city ordinance has already been violated.

Um, and so I'm reticent to um,

so we shouldn't discuss it now, okay?

Because it's not it's not an issue right now.

I'm just telling you my reservations about pushing up the meeting. not trying to

Oh, I'm so I'm sorry. I thought we were just getting into the merits of of it, but I think you were expressing something different, but I was just going to say my recommendation would be to make a motion to continue it to a date to be determined. Um, and that's how you that's what you want to do, which it sounds like that's what it takes.

Okay.

Can I ask a question? Um so that is there what is going to protect the tree while construction work is happening?

Yes. Is there a way for the city to make clear that the process is the process is in process and nothing further should happen to the tree? Um, so just so we're clear.

Yeah. Well, potentially a notice from the forestry board, which you know, Russell can address with with Diana that, you know, here's a here's the uh code section that says you not to damage trees. That might be that might be something that they would want to do. and is public. Will the public be renotified? Will new sign be put up?

Yes.

So, is there an active roofing permit? Because if there is, you know, the permit would have requirements,

right? Ultimately, I'm not aware if there was a permit pulled.

All right. So, do we want to make a motion to continue this to a future meeting?

Good question. The appellet said she was okay with pushing it till September, October.

Yes, correct.

Make sure I understand.

The exact response, let me read it to you, was, "Would you like me to ask the commission if they would like to reschedule? It may mean we wait till September." The response was, "Sure." That would be amazing. Thank you.

Okay. Well, I move that we continue item 5.1 through a date at uh it took to be determined by staff and working with the appellent.

Okay, a motion.

Second.

Second. Motion Commissioner Summer, second by Commissioner Sylvester. Um

so let me let me just continue the the question that that you were mentioning that Russell could um work with the appellent to clarify the expectations of the protection of the trade until it comes before the PRC again. What what um what would cause that to happen? Would we need to say something about it? become something that staff would just do.

Well, I'm gonna leave that up to them. I'm putting that forth as, you know, potential option that may or may not happen. Regardless of the motion, I'm happy to do that. That would be the intention anyways, just to follow up, let her know it was continued, and ultimately I can share that additional information. Well, I would prefer to have the volunteer while we're discussing the tree.

Okay. You want to conduct a vote then?

Commissioner Bryant.

Yes.

Commissioner Davis.

Commissioner Sylvester.

Yes.

Vice Chair Summer.

Yes.

And chair.

Yes.

If we might be able to take a quick break. Sounds like might be video issue.

Okay,

sound is okay. But

thank our attorneys for

being here tonight. And um we'll reschedu this item 5.1 for future date. Let's please not add an extra meeting. Okay. And we'll take a it is 7:20.

7:35 7:35 7 The sound is still on.

Okay.

The sound is still on. Well, let me go out and look at these sites. It sounds like you did

to that. I want to say that's why I want to ask the question because I want to say thank you.

That really shows such good interest.

You're letting your neighbors stop and want to talk. Thank you very much. They're not even living. They just had a baby. I don't know if they would all directly across Do I have to when I first got married? I was nine years apart. just call and say hello to him from he likes that among friends.

Oh, I'm so sorry. Well, I mean trees are just Yeah.

You sound like a bush a tree. I went up there Monday this week and saw the construction saw that all the materials are stacked around.

I know. I know. I'm actually um So my role is language the standard and all over.

Yeah, for sure. season. There's no

love. Yeah. I will comment. I don't want to be Yeah. burning people and now I'm just like you know what I'm going to hang out with people I don't want to deal with something like my I know. Okay. What's that? Yeah. No one should find you. He's going to pass it over to me. I will talk just like all the other ones. Stand up when you're standing. So this is my

the two on So that's

yeah heard I heard between the lines I like to totally just Yeah.

Believe it or not, Is there more people that's like And then I saw It was funny people. Um, she's social media

super

because

yeah just reaching out to people who aren't by doing that

you found more of your time

doing it's a good group of people

they don't have parks some of those.

Yeah. People that went to county parks which are retired by now. All right, we're going to reconvene. Uh, it's about 7:40 and we will now move on to item 5.3, which is our annual update from the canopy organization and have we will let our forestry manager Russell Hansen introduce today's speaker. Sure. Thank you, Commissioner. I, as you know, I tend to keep things a little bit short, but I'm going to keep this one even shorter and just say that, you know, Canopy is a very valued partner um for the city of Mount View. We've done a lot of hard work with them over the last couple of years to really expand and kind of refine what we're doing with them. And so, tonight is just their opportunity to kind of come and share with you all of the accomplishments that we've had over this last year or so. So, with that, I will turn it over to Aubrey to share kind of their starting point for us. Good evening everyone. Thank you for having us um at your meeting this evening to have the opportunity to present to you all the work that we've done or really proud of in partnership with the city of Mountain View. Um I'm Aubrey Kadir and I'm the community forestry manager at Canopy and we have Ebony Wang, our lead community forester, Ude Buma and Michael Drock. They all um work with the city of Mountain View in either planting or caring for trees. So this was the incredible teeth doing the work this last planting season.

Believe we have some slides. I'll just wait a second.

Oh yes, we do.

And Alice, if I'm correct, the slides will not be

um the slides should work. It's just the video feed. So I think that when I share these, it should be okay. can't speak at all. We can advance to announce for action. Yeah. So, thanks for kicking us off, Russell. We've um had an incredible planting season, and we've seen our community forestry model that we value at Canopy really flourish this past season. And that really happens with this public, private, and nonprofit partnership. Really um growing our community forest together through all of our different resources, things that we bring to the table. And that's where that's what really moves the needle. So, uh, on the public sector, of course, the city of Mountain View's urban forestry and parks division providing the planting locations to us, helping us procure the trees, deliver them, and, um, having us having them with us on on the day of the event was awesome as well. And then, uh, private, we have our Mountain View residents that bring the passion. They, um, they accept trees on their property. They come help us plant trees, care for them. They're, um, open to learning more about how they can continue supporting the urban forest. And then the nonprofit partner, US Canopy, where we bring the community together to grow the urban forest together. Um, yeah.

Yeah. So, here on uh this slide, you can see a visual map of all the trees that we've planted in the LA or within the last planting season. Uh this metric is just on public parks alone but this map does include our residential food plantings as well. Next slide please. So we started this year with a goal of 49 trees, but through this visionary plan in partnership with the city of Mountain View's urban forestry and parks division and the belief that the community forestry model of planting trees is the standard all cities should adopt. We were able to increase that limit to 249 with a focus on our public parks. And like Aubrey mentioned, this incredible number can only be made possible uh because of the community support and the city of Mountain View support as well. Next slide, please. Oh, I got through there. Um just this past planting season alone, we were able to plant over two over 200 trees, which is almost double last year's numbers. Um some of the metrics that you see on this slide here. Um the one I want to point out is in that planting season we were able to plant or within these last three months we were able to bring out 320 unique volunteers many of whom came back to multiple events. Um and then again the oh the next slide please. Uh, one of the one of the pride and joys that I had um the opportunity to to put together was um a new avenue of community engagement, specifically our youth urban forest stewards. Uh this program, as you can see, uh was designed to engage youth to come out uh on their time, create a youth only space for them to build their own communities, get to know each other, and we're talking students from all across the Bay Area um to come to Mountain View.

Yes. Uh I'm the tree coordinator, so if you guys see problematic trees, let alone know. He'll let me know. Um but in general I've been really grateful with how much the city has been investing in their own people. Um this year we had two trainings with the city park staff. We had 20 of them come out and at each and even were able to include three of the staff from the Mountain View Wednesday District. Um in some of these trainings and through the gradual process we seen an increased care for a lot of our trees in our public spaces including a lot of the young trees may have been planted by canopy that are going to provide the shade and benefits for future generations. These trainings then transitioned into public workshops and we had 12 volunteers come help us and our experienced volunteers with the majority of them being Mountain View residents. Um we were able to get through I believe a total of around 27 trees cared for just in these workshops. Um again it's been a joy and we view that tree care as tree trust. We try to come back and show that we are committed. Uh next slide. Yeah. So this year alone the county hosted five hours led prewalk interactive tree walks in parks across the mountain view and prewalks are the great which paves a way for the community members to engage with mountain view urban forest and also canopy and many of our volunteers first started with canopy through walks and apart from the uh contract with canopies both in field and also in classrooms beyond the scope of this contract like canopy education team at delivered 50 bilingual uh lessons to Mistl and Castro elementary schools teaching our young generations how importance of urban forests. Next slide please. And also Canopy participated in two special events where with one is one of one is harvest uh history festival and our birthday celebration at park. And canopy also supports community education to relevant and also pertinent urban forestry topics through the development of education flyers on press uh tree root conflicts clearance and property owner tree maintenance responsibilities. Next slide. And also please enjoy some of the clicks we had from the uh previous events. One is the tree walk and also tree care work. Next slide. And it's all like thanks to Mayor tree planting in honor of Mayor Emily Roma Ramos and also like a day where our young urban forest stewards participated in youth replanting.

Uh this was I was late on this one. One of the largest events of the year, 20 trees requested park. I would like to have a personal shout out to Russell and Matt and the city crew who came out helped us deliver the trees, stage the trees, and even a shout out um to Abby Trudeau, my predecessor in Canopy came out as our arborists for the food walk that day. Uh we were actually just back at the park um yesterday and the trees are looking really good, which is going to be nice for the summer. Next slide, please. Yes. Uh on the left you'll see our Valentine's Day planting. What should you be my Valentine which was probably our most logistically complicated one. 16 trees over 14 houses in one day. Um it was a lot of fun. Um but on the right you can see our Ys helping us in one of them.

Great. So, um, as you can see, we have a lot that we're really excited that we're able to accomplish this last season, and it really still just feels like the beginning of an incredible partnership that we keep growing with each season. So, looking ahead to our next um, fiscal year, our next planting season, we're just so excited to plant more trees in Mountain View, more education, more community engagement, and just keep deepening this great partnership. And thank you. And if you have any questions, I'll take them.

All right. Um, let's do questions and then we'll do public comment and then it'll come back to us if there's anything else. Any questions? Go ahead.

Question. As you heard earlier, there may be an audience for your messaging uh with the homeowners association. I wanted to ask, are they sort of on your list of who you might interact with and provide some of your flyers and expertise to?

Yeah, it's a great question. We've um certainly had similar situations where um you know, working with the HOA um also helps us get more trees in the ground too. Um but also Canopy our role um in the community and partnership with the city is I think to really provide that education and um be a sort of liaison so that we can all enjoy the the urban forest but in a way that um also works for the people living in it. Um, we currently don't have specific um, HOA guidelines. Um, but I'd be happy to next season um, talk about, you know, if that's a a priority for the city to provide resources to help navigate um, those situations where, you know, the permissions or who owns what or or you know, what should we do in the situation can be a bit unclear.

Thank you. um last year or where you're planting now. Um what is the mix of trees? Like what are your top three to five tree species you're planting and why did you choose those? Uh the um mix of pres were like um uh uh most of them are oaks the first one and then we went for some grape metals and also uh Chinese fish. So those are I would say these are the top three and the reason we selected was like um most uh the all trees were giving like more amount of canopy since our goal is to increase urban canopy within urban areas. So and uh they're like mix of native and also adaptable species which are we don't have any non-invasive and also like non-native which are like invasive species. Other questions?

Yes, this is actually maybe a question more to staff. Um, what is the when canopy plants trees does the list go through staff first? Do you like at the start of the year a list of these are the trees canopy will plant or how does it work?

Sure. So ultimately this year, yes, we were the ones that were responsible for identifying locations, identifying species, and kind of providing that information to Ken. In the future, we kind of were talking before the meeting or otherwise. There's a lot of things we're going through, get off topic a little bit. It's looking like we're finally going to have our funding for Canopy converted to a more permanent SAS. we've been operating on one-time funding for the last couple of years. So, it looks like we're finally getting that permanent. Knock on wood that passes in the budget that's upcoming. Um, if that is the case, we're going to be taking another entirely kind of different approach um not just to the tree planting, but to our whole agreement um in terms of some of the tree walks, in terms of some of the other outreach they're doing, we want to just kind of go back and have another conversation. So, we're expecting that next week we'll be sitting down with them and kind of revising our scope and kind of figuring out where we want to go as we forward. Um, but yeah, the hope would be again because we're somewhat limited with resources or otherwise to perhaps be able to rely on canopy if we give them locations or otherwise I'll say general locations, parks or otherwise that maybe they are the ones that are going out there identifying the specific location species or otherwise. And yes, we would still have that come back to us for approval. If I may add a little of that, we uh for a lot of the street trees, we're pretty much always going with Matthew Feist animals are basically our close confidant. He always does a stamp of approval on the trees we choose. And we're still picking from a list that the city has provided ones that you guys are down to have in your parks and on your street tree locations.

Yeah, street trees is a more challenging conversation with property owners to make sure that they're happy with what's going to be planted in front of their home.

We like to provide options so they take ownership of their tree. Right. to to that point are how familiar are you with the city of Mountain View's draft biodiversity plan which helps informing public u plannings but it's certainly a document that we'd like to assume well educated on. Yeah, we are familiar and we were involved in the community surveying portion of it. So, um about a year or two ago, I think we were um tableabling at Mountain View events, collecting input um through the surveys which were then used to inform um the outcomes and the recommendation of the plan. And um I see that being a goal is for Canopy to help uh execute and enhance the community education um goals and having the community members be aware of this incredible document that was just made and then also supporting the urban forestry goals within it.

Great to help convey those. You you work with Palo Alto also, right?

Any other municipalities?

East East Palo Alto. Um and we recently are contracted with the city of Menlo Park as well

for Bell Haven neighborhood specifically.

A good regional canopy.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

Thanks a lot for your work.

Ah individual beneficiary canopy three or two.

Commissioner Brian's going to continue with question.

Yes. So it's um the role of canopy in mountain viewers is still I mean it's it's clearly evolving. It started very small. It's evolving. Maybe it will become a permanent part and and will be so easy to really structure it to the specific needs that that MU has. At this point, Canopy would be more responsible for working with volunteers with doing the tree walks with the educational part because the 200 trees well wonderful and every one of them is welcome. That's not the quota that Mountain View sets itself for planting trees per year. So the planning is also being done by the city or by other contractors whereas canopy is like the the educational volunteer outreach that that's the definition of the role. Am I correct in that

historically? Yes. But that is part of what we've been transitioning them to be more active in the tree planting because ultimately when we plant by contractor or otherwise we just don't see the same level of results. we see more tree fatalities, um, decline challenges that by working with Canopy who do the majority of our tree planting, they get that education to the property owners as a part of the planting process. They follow up with that owner to make sure that they're maintaining that it's watering if they have any other challenges. And so, yes, the education part of that is the most critical piece for the planting as well. Um, but yeah, that was part of the conversation we had with them earlier is that looking at what we have going forward, canopy, uh, excuse me, per the bio plan, um, ultimately we have a goal of planting 300 new unique trees every year. That is kind of what they've accomplished this year. There were a few of those that were replants, but going forward, we really need to be able to separate that. Our mitigation money is strictly to plant replacement trees, to plant new trees, the 300 trees we're talking about. It's going to be a challenge for them to ramp up and kind of achieve some of that with the volunteers or otherwise. And so there may still be some instances roadway medians or otherwise where it's challenging for volunteers, etc. Those are still likely to be done by us, but in those cases, we ultimately have more control over the irrigation. we have more control over monitoring them with our contractors that are doing the landscape maintenance, etc. And so it's going to be a balance. Um, but ultimately any of the plantings that they're able to achieve, I want to try and use that as much as I possibly can because of those extra outreach, because of that extra educ education. I just think it's invaluable.

So, this goes a little beyond pen, but I'm turned out this year. Um, and moving forward, I hope that the PRC will will get a clear understanding and participation with the city in in how this is all going to be structured so we all have a clear idea of how how this is working, how achieving our goals for biodiversity. And thank you.

And I'm going to chime in just a little bit so I can fill some of the gaps as well. Um each year we do a scope of services with Canopy and each year it's evolved a little bit based on the need based on the need of the community based on our needs based on what we're seeing. So we're going to be taking a look at the biodiversity plan and once again taking a look at where those gaps are and where we can you know partner with Canopy to help fill those gaps. We had education for a while. Now we're seeing a need for planting. It will continue to evolve. Um, but so that's I'm just tagging on to that. But the bio plan will be really important in taking a look and partnering with Canopy and and having them take a look at it and say, "Hey, we can help with this and we need help with it, too."

Yeah, I think I think you have on your website a arborist referral link.

Yes.

Is that something that you consult with them on?

No.

Should you? we could stand up.

Ultimately, it just depends. It's it's challenging for us as a city agency to provide recommendations or otherwise on private property and the liability that that presents. Doesn't mean I can't be a sounding board. If they have questions that I can have conversations with them, etc. But it's a challenge and they do have our on staff or otherwise that should be able to answer most of the questions.

Yeah. Certainly.

Yeah. Traditionally, it's um been a helpful tool to point residents to because like Russell was alluding to, cities are uh a bit limited in providing a recommendation for an arborous service. So, if um and we get a lot of people like I have a street problem, um do you have recommendations for an arborist? That's when they can come to Canopy as a nonprofit. We then have the list that has extensive filters that we keep updated with local certified arborists. Okay. And you somehow qualify those artworks or just go off of AI. What's your association? ISA. ISAs.

Oh, I was like not AI. ISA. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So, they're ISA certified arborists and then they're researched like what they're specialized in. Um, and then the user can filter and then it just shows a more concise list of local arborists that might be better for their situation. Another question. I just wanted to ask a question sort of about your funding model. Um, you know, sounds like I was I would have asked about the other cities, so it sounds like you have contracts with two or three other cities. Um, but in terms of revenue, what are and I haven't looked at your annual report, but but what are your other sources? Do you have like a couple major benefactors? Do you just rely on hundreds of small donations? Um what are what are your sort of sources?

Yeah. Um and I think lucky that we have a pretty healthy diverse portfolio. So there's the city contracts, but we have um substantial state contracts or state grants from CalFire and as well as um private uh foundations, individual donors. So it really is um expansive and diverse. So, our work that you're seeing here, we even are able to go a bit above beyond like the um educational lessons that Uday mentioned. That's from a private um a private uh foundation. So, our work uh never funded entirely in a vacuum. We have um we're always seeking and acquiring additional funding to keep the organization healthy.

Good. Well, I mean, it's good to have a

Yeah. Um, so is there any um public comment? Is anybody in the room want to talk? Anybody online?

I don't see anybody online.

So, I'll close off public comment and see if we have any final points. Y

well, thank you very much for all you do. I've been on one of your walks and um I've also been with you on a I think I joined leadership you with one other question every I still go back to the tree

see how it's see how it's doing

that's what we hope for

well we're thank you so much for for being here tonight

for Thank you.

All right. So, if I can really quick, I also kind of having a conversation on the side here, not necessarily rated related to canopy, but we kind of passed along some information about invasive shackle board. You all, and I just wanted to kind of throw out some additional information. Um, ultimately, we believe we have found one tree um out towards Mataloma. San Ramon specifically is a street um that we believe is infected. Unfortunately um the first results that we've got back for the pest actually comes back to something different. It may not be the invasive shot bore, but we have a secondary test that there is a very specific fuserium fungus that they carry. That test for some reason has been delayed and we're not quite sure. So we're trying to figure out what's going on with that test because that's going to be the more definitive. Um, but ultimately kind of that was already we already had a plan in process. We knew that this pest was coming having come from San Jose. It was a pest that we discovered in San Jose literally about six months before I left. Um, it has exploded in San Jose to hundreds and thousands of trees that they're currently trying to manage. Um, it has also moved up to Sunnyville. They have confirmed the presence in Sunnyale. We believe we have it on that one tree, but we got to confirm that. In the interim, we started a trapping program. Those traps were actually set out on Monday. If you go to our urban forestry page, we actually have that map up on the page. Um, so we'll show those trap locations. As we start getting results from those, we will be posting those results on that very same web page. So each day that we every two weeks or so, we're going to be inspecting those traps. those results that we get, we will then put back up onto the website. We're going to be tracking that trap as well as we're going to be physically monitoring that area around stand because again, we're just not confident that those test results um are accurate, I'll say. Um so, we may do u some again some monitoring of that specific neighborhood, looking at specific trees, making sure it's um not expanding at a rapid rate. Ultimately, it is a pest that is very very difficult to control. Um, everywhere else that it has come in, it has been just simply managing the decline of some of these amplifier trees or otherwise that really start to spread the pest. They are so infested. They're laying so many eggs that they're kind of amplifying that presence of that. So, the key is when we get to that state, um, this will all be on the website. Again, less than 50 trees we consider a minor infestation. Up to 100, excuse me, less than 50 strikes we consider minor. Up to 100, we consider it as moderate. More than 150 strikes on a tree, it becomes excessive, more problematic. There are treatments, there are chemical applications that we can do to kind of reduce those spread that infection process. um always trying to be very cautious with that because of our inter integrated pest management practices etc. Um beyond that we know this is going to have an impact on the trees. Um we know we are going to lose some trees to this pest. It is about staying on top of it getting them out as quick as possible if needed or treating them so that we can reduce how fast it's moving so that we can continue to keep our canopy. um primary species I think as we kind of have said sycamores, oaks, um ash trees, um several other species, um maples, acernos in particular, box elders, um are considered an amplifier. They are one of the worst trees for this pest. They find those trees, they infest those trees. Decision has been made previously in most the other areas that this has come in. Just as soon as you see them on the Easter, those box elders, get them out. just take them out because you're not going to be able to control it. You're not going to have that success rate that you have with some of those other species. So, you know, bottom line, there's a lot for us to still learn. They are acting a little bit differently here in Northern California than they were in Southern California where they were first identified, but we'll kind of see how this progresses over the next several years, but this is something that we're going to have to manage um as we move forward. It it there's no way to control it or the short answer. So any questions that you have specifically about that for us this evening?

Can I?

Sure.

I was in Pioneer Park. Well, I'm in Pioneer Park all the time, but several of the or especially our our centennial or look absolutely terrible. What does is there another disease going on? Is it stress? I'm attributing most of those because I'm aware of a lot of those trees, especially there's one big valley oak kind of towards the south end of the building there that I've been watching the last couple of years. Um I think the majority of it is just sight stress related. Um where water has been changed, where construction has occurred for that parking lot on the south side of the library. um different factors for each of those, but absolutely we are monitoring them and if needed we will step in do some supplemental uh fertilization, watering, whatever we need to do to kind of keep them moving. Um I I don't want to raise an alarm bell on this one. If you're there at Pioneer and you get the opportunity to walk along Franklin Street, all of the sycamores along Franklin in front of the library have died. Um we're not sure why on that one. We're not seeing the ISHB. We're not seeing any of the common problems. Um what we've kind of thought is there may be some herbicide damage. There may be some other things that are affecting them. So we're looking at testing or otherwise. Um but there's about a dozen trees on that site that we're going to have to remove because we haven't been able to pinpoint it. That's why I'm watching those oak trees or otherwise because we have seen in a couple of otherations where it's not just the sycamore where we are seeing it at oaks. We are seeing it on Asteries that this is a similar dieback

and we just haven't gotten to the bottom. We've been looking at it for probably two to three months now talking to the different testing um companies to see what they can test and how we can get that and samples that we need to take. So, we're just trying to kind of figure it out, but they absolutely on our radar screen and we see the value in those. So, we want to do everything we can to try and keep them. the centennial of uh it looked fine like till a couple of weeks ago and I was there just a few days ago and it looks

okay. I haven't been there in the last couple weeks. Is it defoliated or are the leaves not browning and dying off?

It's hard to tell if it's just awful.

Okay.

The the partly defoliating I think partly the leaves are browning this. Yeah, they're brown.

So there there's a couple of things that come to mind immediately on those. One of them is we we have absolutely had a I'll say significant um occurrence of tusk moth this year. Um tusk moth is very much favorites or oaks are very much a favorite of the tusk moth. Um it's quite possible. That's why I ask about defoliation because if we get enough of a population in the tree, they can almost defoliate that in a favorite tree. Um so that's the first place I go. Second place that I go um is ultimately I lost track of my thought here. um the Pusk moth and then the other place that I went was anthrachnos. That's what I was trying to say is that because of the later rains that we've had this year, oaks are sometimes susceptible to anthrachnos or otherwise. And so that would be the other place I go if they're browning and kind of staying on the tree initially. It may be an anthrachnos fungus, bacteria type problem as well. So bottom line, I will get out there um sometime this week or early next and take a look at that and see if there's something we can do more immediately.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Is all this going to change what trees you're recommending for planting

potentially? Yes.

Okay.

Sycamores are already on that list. One of the things we also did that I don't believe is up on the website yet, but because sycamores are the predominant species that they saw affected in LA and that's predominantly what San Jose saw, what we did is we created a heat map where basically we map the density of the sycamores throughout the city. That's ultimately where we decided to place those tracks is where we knew we had a large amount of hosts or otherwise. Um, and yes, we have to hedge our bets. If we know that that sycamore is a favorite, we need to try to avoid them somewhat. Again, I don't want to completely eliminate them from our pallet because it's not their fault and they may not get infected. Um, but we have to be careful. We don't want to plant too many more of those knowing that it may wipe out the majority of them.

Let me jump in. The native sycamore tree in your apartment is dead.

Okay,

I planted that as mayor looks dead. Okay, I will get over there and take a look at that. But at the same time, that that definitely has me nervous about the ones that are out um along Franklin Street that it could be tied to that same trees.

Yeah, we

Yep.

Again, Commissioner Sylvester has a question.

I'm going to say we probably identified almost 200 trees in the last three months that aren't leaking out, that aren't performing the way that they should be. And so, we're really scrambling to try and figure out what these issues are. Um, two questions. What is the fatality rate of the boar or is is that a metric you have?

We do not. Um, it is significant. I'll say as much as I'll say 30 to 40%.

Long long term, it is almost always fatal. Even management, all you're doing is slowing the progression of it. The way that the pest operates is ultimately it it bores into the tree and then it lays this fungus down. Once it's in the tree and it lays that fungus, we're not getting rid of the pest and we're not getting rid of the fungus. And so it's just about keeping the populations low enough to where they don't gallerize the tree so much that it completely shuts down and dies. But I'm going to say it's 100% mortality, but ultimately it's about managing it to where you know quick death I'll say less than 30%.

That's still really high. Yes, absolutely. This this is a problem. They they lost hundreds of thousands of trees down in the San Diego LA area.

Um and a quick question. You mentioned the trees on Franklin. One thing you're looking at it might be herbicides

potentially. Yes.

City's IBM program. It's just that it's not from the city. Where would they become?

Sure. Absolutely. And so one of the things it's not that we don't use herbicides because we do. We've eliminated the use of Roundup, right?

And so what we've done is we've gone through and we started using two or three different chemicals that were recommended to us by Target specialty as alternatives.

What I fear is that one of those alternatives was used in an inappropriate location that typically one of those chemicals should be used away from I'll say plants, shrubs, trees, etc. Absolutely. Kills everything. It is a broadspectctrum herbicide.

So because it was new, somebody just

they may have made a recommendation. Somebody may have grabbed the wrong thing. Again, I don't want to point fingers because I just don't know yet. I don't want to imply that this has happened.

But it wasn't like

but we have to rule it out.

Yeah.

When I look at these trees and and ultimately I I rely on my colleagues. I was at a conference about three weeks ago and well actually four or five weeks ago now. Um, and I was going around to all of my industry professionals from LA that have dealt with the ISSHB, that have dealt with all kinds of things. Almost unanimously, all of them were pointing towards herbicide damage. That's what's got me looking at herbicide damage. Um, the problem is it's not easy to test for herbicide damage. It's very, very expensive and you have to know specifically which chemical was used.

It's almost like you have to rule everything else out first.

Almost like Yes. And so, again, we're working on that. I just got an email today from the testing company where I feel like we're finally going to be able to test for the one chemical in particular that I'm concerned with.

I just don't know if it's going to give us the results because they say that they can only test water and we don't have water per se. And so what we're talking to them about right now is is it possible that if we take a gallon of soil and we put in three gallons of water and we make oursel a nice compost tea or otherwise and then we filter that into just a solution of water, are you still able to test? And they feel like they're going to be able to do that for us. And so again, that's my challenge is I just I have to start ruling things out one by one and trying to get this under control because knowing the ISB is here, we do not feel any of these trees are related to that. We're not seeing the strikes. We're not seeing the pest. We're not seeing anything, but it it's a problem. It it a year and a half from when we first saw symptoms at the Franklin Library to where they are completely dead at this point and we have to remove and place them. That is not typical. There's something going on.

Do you know what you'll replace them with? Are you going to

We haven't even gotten that far yet.

You don't know if there's a s susceptibility to of a certain tree.

Correct. That that's where it goes back to where we're likely to remove them over the summer that we're going to get them out and the hope would be we're going to replant them this fall as a part of all of our planting this winter. Um but haven't made any decisions on species because I just don't know what my problem is yet and I have to pick appropriately to avoid future problems. Okay, unless there's compelling extra questions, I'd like to move us along to our next agenda item. Um, thank you very much.

Absolutely. Thank you all. And, um, Alison, do we still need time to set up a minute or so to get connected to the Z? All right. Our next item is item 5.4 4 and this will be the fiscal year 2627 operating budget and Wong will be our presenter and she's just getting set up now. So

just one second. Thank you.

Give it a second. Just one second. This happened last time, too. One sec here. Just Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you. One of these days I'm gonna get it back. Um, okay. Good evening, commissioners. I'm Lindsay Wong, senior management analyst for the community services department, and tonight I'm here to present to you CSD's recommended operating budget adjustments for fiscal year 2627. Um, the recommended budget was presented to city council last night and the final budget will go to council for adoption later in June. Next slide. Um tonight's presentation I will go over recommended budget adjustments for parks, forestry, shoreline, and recreation programs and services. So first are CSD's recommended non-discretionary expenditure adjustments. So non-discretionary adjustments are typically related to contractual rate increases or um other adjustments that are considered necessary to continue existing levels of service. So the first non-discretionary budget item for CSD is the actinet fee increase. So Acttonet is the department's registration software system that we use to register participants for classes and programs, reserve facilities, and process point of sale transactions. Um, Active charges us a processing fee per transaction, and that fee typically increases annually. So we're requesting to add 77,000 for that line item. And then the second non-discretionary budget item is an increase to CSD's landscape maintenance contract. So this contractor performs maintenance uh service on roadway medians and other landscaped areas throughout the city. And this budget adjustment covers rate increases as well as the addition of new parcels that previously had no formal maintenance plan but now require landscape tariffs and uh continued safety, compliance, and aesthetic standards. Um now we have uh CSD's recommended discretionary expenditures. So for recreation we have the pride celebration event. Um the inaugural pride event was held last year and CSD will be hosting the 2026 event next Saturday, June 20th. Um which we hope you can all attend. Um the ongoing cost for this item includes um vendor and contractors, supplies and materials and part-time staff costs. And then also in recreation, we have Magical Bridge programming. So starting in 2025, the city has had year-round inclusive performances at Magical Bridge playground at their community stage. And the ongoing cost for this item also includes uh performers, supplies, materials, and part-time staff costs. And then moving on to shoreline. Um CSD is recommending the addition of one full-time park maintenance worker, three to oversee maintenance of the Stevens Creek Trail and Permanente Creek Trail. Historically, trail maintenance has been divided among different work groups within CSD with no dedicated staff person. And so the addition of one dedicated park maintenance worker three for the trail system means that one staff member can ensure a consistent maintenance schedule, look for opportunities to enhance the trail and oversee hourly maintenance staff and coordinate with other crews and purchase supplies and materials for the trail. And then next in the urban forestry division, we have the youth forestry outreach and education services item, which is your our canopy contract, which you just heard a lot about, and you got to see all the awesome work that Canopy does with us. Um, and I think Russell touched on this a little bit, but this contract has been funded on a one-time basis for the past few years, and we are recommending that this be funded on an ongoing basis. So $125,000 is the recommended ongoing amount. And then we're also recommending an additional $200,000 for the tree planting that will take place in fiscal year 2627. And then lastly, we are recommending additional funding for training and conferences throughout the department. So this adjustment, budget adjustment ensures that CSD staff are able to attend necessary specialized trainings and conferences as new staff have been added over the past few years and also as the costs of training, conferences and travel have continued to rise. So this includes um safety trainings and trainings required to uh maintain technical certifications for certain staff as well as industry specific conferences that support professional development for staff. And then next we have limited period budget items for fiscal year 2627. So limited period is just what the city calls um items that are funded for one year at a time rather than ongoing. And these are typically requests that are either one-time in nature or these are newer programs or pilot programs or things like that. Um so first for parks we have power washing services. So this funding is specifically to continue uh monthly power washing services along the 100 to 300 blocks of the Castro Street pedestrian mall corridor and specifically is for all outdoor restaurant and business patios, crosswalks and the center walkway including the street mural. Um and this power washing service has been funded on a limited period basis for the last couple of fiscal years. Next is ellipticals at the senior center. So, this funding is to replace two um aging commercial grade ellipticals at the senior center in the uh exercise room. Uh the exercise room in the senior center is free to use and it's heavily utilized by our uh senior community. So, this is just to kind of replace these older pieces of equipment. Next is teen and college and career programming. So these programs were initially funded through a donation from LinkedIn uh multiple years ago and then once that donation was fully expended, we continued to fund these programs through limited period funding. And uh these programs are offered at the VU Teen Center and include college and enrichment trips, um adultting 101 workshops, career day events, and other free programs that enable teens to build crucial skills to prepare them for their future. And then last we have the biological services contracts at Shoreline. So this request is to continue existing contract services into the new fiscal year. Um at the same time CSD is currently working with a consultant and our HR department to review and update the job description of the wildlife preservation coordinator in order to establish a plan for ongoing um biological and environmental support at shoreline. Um the contractors are currently responsible for surveying and monitoring wildlife, developing monitoring plans for habitat enhancement projects and other services required to support the goals outlined in the Buring owl preservation plan and the shoreline wildlife management plan. And then lastly, we have capital outlay items. So, capital outlay items are um typically pieces of equipment or sometimes minor building improvements um that are basically less costly than a a full capital improvement project. Um so, first we are recommending wood chipper safety shield devices. These are devices that will be installed on the forestry division's three existing wood chippers. Um, as you can imagine, wood chippers are a very dangerous piece of equipment. So, these are these devices use new technology, um, new magnetic technology as an added safety measure for staff. And then next, we're recommending a new projector here at the community center in the Redwood Hall to replace the current projector and just enhance AV capabilities for events. Um the current projector has had it's been here since the new community center opened and it's just had issues with the lamps or the bulbs um having to be replaced a lot. So the new projector is like state-of-the-art and um more efficient as well. Um so those are all of the recommended requests that were included in the budget item last night. So um as far as next steps on June 23rd will adopt the fiscal year 2627 budget and then on July 1st the new fiscal year starts and that is the end of my presentation. So I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have budget.

Great. Thank you Lindsay. Um questions start on this side questions. Yeah, the thing that stood out to me was the active net uh increase 50 something%. How do they justify that?

Um, so the active net fees, so they do uh vary based on the type of transaction. So basically the the per transaction fee, it's anywhere from like 2% to 5%. So there's different fees based on if it's like a on-site transaction or if it's an online transaction, credit card transaction. So they kind of vary. Um, but they have we have had to pay the the per transaction fees since we implemented the software and I presume that other registration softwares probably charge similar fees.

Um, but it's not just that the fee itself is going up like they're charging us a slightly higher percent but also because the number of transactions that we process every year increases we have to kind of continue to

Yeah. So the revenue also goes up and and kind of offsets that. So um just like some rough numbers, we process around 42,000 transactions annually. And then the total revenue just for the recreation division alone last last fiscal year was around $3.5 million. So we do bring in a lot of revenue with those added transactions. But um

and that's not a single year increase. So we don't look at a we haven't increased each We haven't increased it. I don't think we increased it last year. We kind of increased it like every couple of years. Um just so that we don't have to come back every year and and do this rate increase. Um

just a poll your question. I'll let you go back. But when you make this presentation,

are you also showing the revenue offset as part of this? It's not just a $77,000 incremental expense. You're also saying it's also going to increase revenue by 30 or something like that.

Yeah. So, we do adjust our revenue lines as well when we uh when we so the process of like we submit our budget requests with to city leadership to finance. We work with them and then they kind of, you know, balance the city's budget, but we do work with them to adjust those revenue lines as well. So, the added revenue is also built into the the revenue budget so that, you know, we can show that we're we're meeting those revenue targets and exceeding our revenue. Go ahead. And then the biological services consultant.

Do I understand that to the placeholder until FT is so it's basically paying consultant until you hire something?

Correct. And then u based on the outcomes of the job description there may be certain we have some lessons learned through this. So there may be some helpful aspects of what they're doing now as consultants to keep them on for certain things, but not not to keep them on as a to um basically be the full-time employee. So yes, we'll bring on a full-time employee and determine what type of additional assistance they may provide, but we'll see how how those come together. And then I recall last night the council member Kame was asking you to look at lactation station. Are you going to do that?

So the council did not give us direction last night that what we were asked to do is to look at it for future reference. And so um the library um director emailed me today with a little more information. I have to look at how large it is. Can we accommodate it? Um and what the the best location would be. Um, and so we'll we'll look into that.

What What does that require other than just privacy? Is there

That's big.

Yeah, that's You've seen the one at the library.

I've seen like airports and everything.

Yeah. Yeah. So there

little mini trailer.

Yeah. It's a It's a capsule if you will.

Place to Yeah.

Yes. Yeah. Interesting.

Other questions? So I just couple questions. So one, you know, I just again this it would be great to do this before it actually went to council and I know that we've discussed that in the past and I thought we were going to try to get this first. I don't know if you can comment on the timing of this because once it's gone to council there's we did not we could do and we would probably be a great test audience for you as as well on some of these things if we could. So there's a balance of bringing requests to the commission in advance of council. Um I think we are trying again the timing of when items are going to council has changed. So last night was not their first shot at the budget. they did back in April as a as a precursor to what was coming. And so the timing has changed for us of a good time to come to you. And so we're coming to you tonight. If if there was something that is was of significant concern, we would be able to have time to turn around and move on. Um given the what I would call limited requests this year, I didn't think it's anything on there is significant um that requires a lot of dialogue um from the commission. If I did, we we might look at doing things differently, but this really was a a pretty lowlevel year for us.

Yeah. I mean I guess you know one question that I would have is is given that the uh strategic plan is now passed and and biodiversity will probably also pass and we have headcountish things in those plans whether it would have been appropriate or is it too early to introduce those things because you don't know exactly what what they're going to look like but

we

hopefully for next year's budget

right and so that we have not had time to do the analysis and appropriate work to make a budget submitt. I want to remind this group that we as the department start submitting our requ budget requests in December. And so we are starting in October. Everything funnels through me before it gets moved on. Then we submit it. We come back in January, February. We meet with finance. Then we meet with city manager and others um and through that process our you know our roofs start coming down even more um to get to this point and so um looking at that timeline it impractical for us to be in a position to uh make those requests right

okay yeah maybe I don't know if there's midyear opportunities to because I do do a midyear

yes correct look um and then just one question you sort touched on it. So, you watched, but how did council react to the um community service division request?

Other than the the question regarding the lactation um area, uh there were no questions. I have not received any specific questions through the process related to our requests.

Okay. And the budget overall for the city that was presented was okay. I mean there was Yeah. I mean there wasn't some top down thing that says hey you know this is a little too much. We need to cut 10% or something.

No. Okay.

Fig question. Go ahead. So soon would you be able to share how you perceive working with us on in developing budget related matters for the strategic plan and the biodiversity plan. I I realize you might not be able to sit here and answer that question right now, but I mean just looking out over the next year, it would be really nice to know whether there's any input points where there's decisions or you know things that we could assist you with.

So because it would be a shame to be in the same place next year.

Understood.

Yeah.

Yeah. um in relation to the plans and the way the world moving forward. Um a couple of things to to respond to the question. Number one is some of the short-term action steps that have been identified specifically with the park strategic plan. Um many of those are almost costneutral looking at our existing um codes, policies, that type of thing. staff time but not a lot of expenditure. Um, as we look to looking at fulltime um and headcount um there's still a lot of work that needs to be done to be able to to bring forward a a good solid plan of what that looks like. And so um as we move forward on that we'll continue that conversation.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean I think you know this group is interested in the budget implications as well and I'm sure the public is too

and and we'll be bringing specific actions those actions that are identified we'll be bringing those to you as they're being worked on produced. Um I see a lot of them just being one at a time that we're going to be bringing some of those items

because you're they're revenue neutral and you're able to find the staff time or piggy back on something else. Yeah. Yeah. So it's just more thinking about like how you might change how how you would be you know changing your processes because now you'll be working with these other departments and you know it's all that

and some of it may require some initial effort and so that we can determine the type of help we need. Right. And so Brenda for the biodiversity, she she'll be taking the lead in working with the cross departmental team looking to identify what those actions are. And then there's going to come a point she's going to be able to identify this is the type of um position we're going to need to support that. And so it's going to be a little

not necessarily it it's not necessarily going to all be capital improvement budget. It's going to some of it fall into the headcount.

Yes. departmental

anything else. No, just sounds like you're gonna need some money to combat that whole boring 10 grand for that. So, let me check and see if there's any public comment.

Anything online?

No.

All right. So, unless there are any other comments on this one, we'll close this one off. Thank you very much, Lindsay. Um, we'll now move on to item six, commission staff announcements, updates. Director Marsh, you're going to be quick. Uh, just a reminder, we are meeting again next week. We'll be at city hall. Um, it is two more um heritage tree appeals plus we'll be looking at our um work plan for the upcoming year. Um, I emailed uh I sent out an email to the group um in advance of the council meeting. Um, last night council did approve the purchase of the additional property at 975ella. Um, so that is the 0.86 acre parcel to take what was um the parcels we had already taken uh and brought together that was that was 2.4 four. With this addition, we are now at 3.2. So, really bringing us to what the size of Pyramid Park is.

Um, and that's significant. So, being able to um bring a multiple properties together in this area was significant for us. And um in addition to that area being um in need of of parks, that area is going to be expanding as we look at what type of development is on the horizon. There's um some um pretty significant development that's scheduled to to go in that area. So this is certainly uh much needed. As uh Lindsay stated, um pride event June 20th downtown. Uh please join us. Um this week was and is um our training week for all of our summer staff and lifeguards. So it's been busy here and then um all of our um city sponsored and supported um camps start next week. Um, and there are a number of events and and games taking place out at Sailing Lake. The Sailing Lake Cafe is under construction right now. That continues to stay on track. Um, but the Sailing Lake itself continues to be operational and supporting um, summer camps out there. So, um, those are my my updates.

Let me ask you a question on World of Top. Yep. Are you involved in the down any of the downtown uh festivity for world cup? And then I also think I saw there's something happening at Qua Park. Is that something that you guys are overseeing?

I have staff involved with economic development. Yes. And so uh foot golf um believe that's kicking off tomorrow. Um and um so that was from um uh recreation manager Paul and James has been involved in that. Um and then downtown um I forget the dates but um where the old Wells Fargo was next to City Hall and that parking lot is currently closed to public access. um that property owner has allowed the city to install a um a soccer pitch, if you will, like a five on five soccer pitch for the the duration of the World Cup. Um and it'll be available um to use and participate in that way. Um, and so yes, staff has been involved in the development of these activities,

and I know that they've been trying to work with the uh with businesses to get them involved

as well as the youth sports organizations. Um so um believe it's AYSO is doing some outreach to the community actually doing some free soccer camp type of activities drop in um to support the activities. Um the San Jose Earthquakes actually their mascot Q will be coming out and um playing some foot golf out at Qua one day. Um so

does that Questa thing I mean is it run sort of like multiple hour? I mean, I went on the website and it wasn't there yet or something like that.

It will just be dropping and available. Bring your own ball and

Okay. So,

play is it is not an organized back. No, drop in and enjoy.

Go ahead.

Um, someone last night of council, I think it was a member of the public mentioned that there was another property that just came for sale near the Terabella Park.

That's all that was mentioned. It would it would have been so if the the new property is sort of in the middle, I think it was on 965 is available. Um so when it comes to property acquisition, I will say that um this was a um getting 975 was um what's the word? Opportunistic. The perfect storm came together. Um, and the funds available were in place. We were able to take advantage of at this time. I don't have the available funds to purchase an additional property in this location. Uh, I basically used the the funding we had left in this area to um put towards uh the purchase and then also the um design and construction as part of the overall. So, at the moment, as much as I would like to, um, that's just not in the cards right now. We know the property owner. Um, and I don't think it's going to be picked up anytime soon. So, it is an it's an opportunity for down the road. If nothing else comes to fruition, we will keep our eye on it. Um if and when we have some additional funds to put that

can can you do a loan internal transfer from another plant understanding that development is coming in that area and there will probably be placement fees can you have other

we are having some of those conversations now

you know so for example that measure measured

measure G you know we got 1.5 million yard is that 1.5 already used for this.

I mean, it's just I will tell you as soon as anybody heard I had $1.5 million everybody wanted to spend.

Um, so yes, and it's the new community development director came up with this term was, you know, a lot of times we have money that is very strictly available for certain things. Um the 1.5 is almost what we what he calls uh rainbow color. We can use it where we need to and when we need to. Um one of the items that I don't have funding for right now and I am trying to save a little pot of money is to design and construct Calon Park. So, I'm trying to be the trying to keep hands off because we've had the property for a while. It is a location that is visible. We want we want to bring that to fruition. And so, I'm using I'm I'm prioritizing that right now unless a greater priority pops up. And at 1.5, we're not even purchased another piece of property.

No. With all due respect though, the chances of buying buying land where we want it that will make it a really almost unthinkable a large part seems to take priority over everything. So you were saying that you you you have the money for buying and planning and building. It seems like it's better to wait a little with the design maybe and just get the land together because those

it's still not enough funding.

I would if I could if if it made sense right now that and the timing that we need to use some of the funding, it's just not coming together.

Strategic acquis strategic acquisition fund and all the rest everything used up. If you think the price is too high, it's better to let it marinate a while. True.

Again, it we we know these property owners very well. Um, and I will say they've been they have been great to work with and um feel their pricing has been it's been good.

Okay. It's been fair fair market value that we we've been picking up. Yeah. Okay.

Given the type of

still marination may may not be a bad thing.

Yeah.

Any other commissioner questions or announcements?

I I have one one comment. Um I was actually going to

to ask whether the city was investigating the condition of Pioneer Park. So

now now I hear uh but but a couple of days ago when I was there I told Cliff that I just didn't want to go to Pier Park again for a while because it's really depressing. There's like five or six students dying and the fact that her centennial o looks close to death. Uh and then clearly Russell is working on it. I think it's a really high priority, but also when he was mentioning taking out the tree in Franklin, it would be really useful for the community to know about this.

Absolutely.

Because that there there is I mean I now feel better knowing that he's looking at it. But for more community members walking there and seeing dying trees and seeing all the street trees going out, you know, on the website or sign to explain what's going on. You know, the city knows the city is working on it would be really,

you would absolutely do outreach before trees are removed.

No, not before tres. But but just yes before Theresa removed but the parting just even on the website to say there is something going on. We're working on it. We're doing our best.

Okay. Anything else? All right. Um our next meeting is next Wednesday 6 o'clock uh plaza conference room at city hall and then uh tenatively we are off for three month and we will meet here again on September 9th at 6 o'